In the field of computer-telephony-integrated (CTI) telephony communication, there have been many improvements in technology over the years that have contributed to more efficient use of telephone communication within hosted call-center environments.
In recent years, advances in computer technology, telephony equipment, and infrastructure have provided many opportunities for improving telephone service in public-switched and private telephone intelligent networks. Similarly, development of a separate information and data network known as the Internet, together with advances in computer hardware and software have led to a new multimedia telephone system known in the art by several names. In this new system telephone calls are simulated by multimedia computer equipment, and data, such as audio data, is transmitted over data networks as data packets. In this system the broad term used to describe such computer-simulated telephony is Data-Network-Telephony (DNT) of which Internet-Protocol-Network-Telephony (IPNT) is a sub-set. Conventional non-DNT telephony systems are referred to herein as Connection-Oriented-Switched-Telephony COST systems.
Recent improvements to available technologies associated with the transmission and reception of data packets during real-time DNT communication have enabled companies to successfully add DNT, principally IPNT, capabilities to existing CTI call centers. Such improvements, as described herein and known to the inventor, include methods for guaranteeing available bandwidth or quality of service (QoS) for a transaction, improved mechanisms for organizing, coding, compressing, and carrying data more efficiently using less bandwidth, and methods and apparatus for intelligently replacing lost data via using voice supplementation methods and enhanced buffering capabilities.
In addition to Internet protocol (IPNT) calls, a DNT center may also share other forms of media with customers accessing the system through their computers. E-mails, Video mails, fax, file share, file transfer, video calls, and so forth are some of the other forms of media, which may be used. This capability of handling varied media leads to the term multimedia communications center. A multimedia communications center may be a combination CTI and DNT center, or may be a DNT center capable of receiving COST calls and converting them to a digital DNT format. The term communication center will replace the term call center hereinafter in this specification when referring to multimedia capabilities.
In typical communication centers, DNT is accomplished by Internet connection and IPNT calls. For this reason, IPNT and the Internet will be used in examples to follow. It should be understood, however, that this usage is exemplary, and not limiting.
Keeping contact histories, reporting statistics, creating routing rules and the like becomes more complex as newer types of media are added to communication center capability. Additional hardware implementations such as servers, processors, etc. are generally required to aid full multimedia communication and reporting. Therefore, it is desirable that interactions of all multimedia sorts be analyzed, recorded, and routed according to enterprise (business) rules in a manner that provides seamless integration between media types and application types, thereby allowing agents to respond intelligently and efficiently to customer queries and problems.
A customer-interaction network operating system for managing interactions in a multimedia communication center is known to the inventors and described in disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,711 with reference to the cross-reference section of this specification. The system has an external media layer for managing media contact between customers and the communication center, a workflow layer for processing customer interactions and routing events to enterprise agents and knowledge workers; and an internal media layer for managing media contact with the agents and knowledge workers. The workflow layer captures each transaction, prepares a text version of at least a portion of each non-text transaction, and extracts knowledge from the text transaction or text version of a non-text transaction to be stored in a knowledge base for later use in routing and other management functions. All transactions, text versions, and extracted knowledge is related in storage for future analysis and use.
Due to modernization of contact centers and to incorporation of full multimedia capabilities and recovery capabilities of contact history, a new breed of center agent has emerged that can provide assistance with specialized skill-based knowledge that conventional center operative personnel do not normally possess. This newer type of agent is termed a knowledge worker (KW) in the art.
A knowledge worker, weather an agent or specialized technician, generally has all of the resource in the way of customer data, interaction data, product data, and multimedia support at his fingertips as long as he or she is operating from a designated PC/VDU or other supported station within the communication center. In some cases, a knowledge worker may have full data access and multimedia support if he is located off-site but is linked to the center by a suitable data-network connection such as from a home office or remote station.
When a knowledge worker is away from a home-center such as on the road, or at a client location, he is generally limited in data access and interaction capability with his or her home communication-center data and tools. In some cases this may be a liability to the center. In many cases she/he will be limited to specific data that was carried along, or that may be downloaded from the center to such as a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) or a Laptop computer. Moreover, a mobile knowledge worker in the field may also be limited in providing service to the home-center by virtue of the same data-access limitations.
In typical contact centers, which may also include multimedia communication centers, the preponderance of incoming and outgoing interactions are processed by voice (DNT) or Web-based self service interfaces or by communication-center agents located within the domain of the center and managed through a communication center environment. However, many interactions cannot be successfully processed through client self-service interfaces or on-site agents often because of a high level of assistance required. Such interactions require the expertise of a knowledge worker.
Knowledge workers are not required for routine service assistance or other duties that are routinely performed within the domain of the center. As a result, they are typically located off site in a pool or remote to the extent of performing as a home-based or traveling workers. Therefore, standard communication center control systems and procedures cannot be applied to such knowledge workers. Often this problem is due to an absence of a CTI link established between the location of the knowledge worker and the communication center.
Off-site knowledge workers are mobile and typically operate using a variety of communication equipment (non-CTI telephone, personal digital assistants [PDAs], wireless Web, etc.) and using applications that are not assimilated in standard or unified array throughout the communication environment. Therefore, it becomes increasingly difficult to provide management from the communication center in terms of state control and report accessibility.
Remote knowledge workers are, from a control and management standpoint, invisible to standard CTI-enabled facilities. Not having the ability to manage these workers causes the ongoing costs associated with doing business from a communication center to rise.
The inventors are familiar with certain hardware/software methods for providing access to communication center facilities using telephony switch control or other first-party control methods. In these methods call center services are supported by cooperation between software at the CTI processor and the computer platform at the remote station. In one embodiment the data link, once established, is kept open while calls continue to be switched to the remote station. In another embodiment after an initial agent log in, dial up is done from the remote station upon detecting calls from the call center by a TAPI compliant device. A reduced log is performed at the CTI processor at the call center to save time. In yet another method, the CTI processor establishes the data connection each time using a modem bank adapted for dialing. The modem bank switches the call from the call center to the remote station. A plurality of remote stations may be thus supported.
A drawback with these system types is that it requires first-party control equipment established at the remote agent workplace. The first-party control equipment controls the remote agent phone separately from the agent's computer platform.
A proxy system is known to the inventor and described in disclosure of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/405,335 listed in the cross-reference section of this specification. This system enables a worker remote from a communication center and limited to a light computer device unable to operate as a workstation at the communication center to operate with full access to data and software at the communication center. A proxy server, core to the system, has a two-way data link to the light computer device operated by the remote agent, and executes software, which ascertains the hardware and software characteristics of the light device. The proxy server accesses communication center data at direction from the light device, operates communication center software tools, and provides results to the light device over the communication link in a form usable by the light device.
The proxy server accesses communication-center data at direction of the light device, operates communication center software tools, and provides results to the light device over the communication link in a form usable by the light device. This approach suggests a general method for management of remote knowledge workers from within a contact center (CC). In particular, it suggests using a proxy server as a mediator between a contact center environment and a remote agent device. However, it is still limited in terms of further enhancement that might enable more specific techniques and mechanisms. Part of this solution includes a remote option that requires special equipment to be provided and connected to the remote agent's telephone set, which in addition, must be a specially adapted telephone set to accept the equipment.
Some enhancement is provided over the proxy system by yet another system known to the inventors and referenced in this specification as U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/269,124. This system is a network system for managing remote agents of a communication center. The system includes a primary server connected to the network the primary server controlling at least one routing point. The system has one or more secondary servers distributed on the network and accessible to the remote agents, the secondary server or servers have data access to agent computing platforms and communication peripherals. The system utilizes a software suite distributed in part to the secondary server or servers and distributed in part to one or more agents computing platforms and peripherals, the software suite includes protocol for reporting agent status data. The system monitors agents computing platforms and peripherals for activity state through the one or more secondary servers. The one or more secondary servers exchange control messaging and event related data using ISCC supported protocols with the primary server over the network for intelligent routing purposes.
While the above-described system provides full and unfettered access to communication-center data and services for a mobile or otherwise remote knowledge worker, such interaction is limited in terms of control signaling and interaction management that might be initiated from the side of the knowledge worker.
What is clearly needed is a system and methods for managing remote knowledge workers using state-or-art voice technologies that enable human-to-application control and interaction.